NORTH KOREA CRITICISES OBAMA ASIA TOUR
North Korea warned Monday that an upcoming Asian tour by US President Barack
Obama could escalate military tensions, as South Korean media cited
intelligence reports of increased activity at the North's main nuclear test
site. Obama's April 23-29 tour includes visits to Japan and South Korea, the two main US military allies in Asia and key partners in the effort to curb Pyongyang's nuclear weapons programme.
A North Korean foreign ministry spokesman said the "reactionary and
dangerous" trip would only serve to "escalate confrontation and
bring dark clouds of a nuclear arms race" over the Korean peninsula.
In a statement carried by the North's official KCNA news agency, the spokesman said recent Asia visits by the US Secretaries of State and Defence had sought to demonise the North's nuclear and missile programmes and justify a growing US military presence in the region.
The last two months have been a period of elevated tensions on the Korean
peninsula, as South Korea and the United States conducted annual,
large-scale military exercises.
North Korea protested by test-firing dozens of short-range missiles and
conducting its first mid-range missile tests for nearly four years.
On Monday, the South's Yonhap news agency, citing unidentified military
sources, 
said increased activity had been observed at the North's
underground Punggye-ri site where its three nuclear tests were carried out
in 2006, 2009 and 2013.
said increased activity had been observed at the North's
underground Punggye-ri site where its three nuclear tests were carried out
in 2006, 2009 and 2013.
"South Korean and US forces have been closely monitoring the latest
development to detect signs of another test," one source told Yonhap.
At the end of last month, North Korea said it would not rule out a "new
form" of nuclear test after the UN Security Council condemned its
latest medium-range missile launches.
Experts saw this as a possible reference to testing a uranium-based device or
a miniaturised warhead small enough to fit on a ballistic missile.
Source: Reuters
NORTH KOREA PARENTS ‘EAT THEIR CHILDREN’ AFTER BEING DRIVEN MAD BY HUNGER
A starving man in North Korea has been
executed after murdering his two children for food, reports from inside
the secretive state claim.
A
'hidden famine' in the farming provinces of North and South Hwanghae is
believed to have killed up to 10,000 people and there are fears that
incidents of cannibalism have risen.
The
grim story is just one to emerge as residents battle starvation after a
drought hit farms and shortages were compounded by party officials
confiscating food.
Despite reports of the widespread
famine, Kim Jong Un, 30, has spent vast sums of money on two rocket
launches in recent months.
There
are fears he is planning a nuclear test in protest at a UN Security
Council 
punishment for the recent rocket launches and to counter what it
sees as US hostility.
punishment for the recent rocket launches and to counter what it
sees as US hostility.
One
informant was quoted as saying: 'In my village in May a man who killed
his own two children and tried to eat them was executed by a firing
squad.'
The
informant said the father killed his eldest daughter while his wife was away on
business and then killed his son because he had witnessed the murder.
When
his wife returned the man told her they had 'meat' but she became suspicious
and contacted officials who discovered part of the children's bodies.
- Jiro Ishimaru, from Asia Press, which compiled a 12 page report, said: 'Particularly shocking were the numerous testimonies that hit us about cannibalism.'
- Undercover reporters said food was confiscated from the two provinces and given to the residents of the capital Pyongyang.
- A drought then left food supplies desperately short.
The Sunday Times also quoted an official of the ruling Korean
Worker's party as saying: 'In a village in Chongdan county, a man who went mad
with hunger boiled his own child, ate his flesh and was arrested.
Source: Mail Online
N KOREA VOWS RETALIATION AS US HALTS FOOD AID AND CHINA SUSPENDS REFUGEE DEAL
PYONGYANG - North Korea has warned of retaliation after the US scrapped food aid over its rocket launch, raising fears of a new nuclear test, as China reportedly suspended a refugee deal with its wayward ally.In a defiant statement late Tuesday, the nuclear-armed North broke off a bilateral agreement to halt testing of nuclear weapons and long-range missiles after Washington suspended much-needed food aid.
"We have thus become able to take necessary retaliatory measures, free from the agreement. The US will be held wholly accountable for all the ensuing consequences," its foreign ministry said.
- South Korean analysts said they expect the North to follow up by staging a third nuclear weapons test, or launching another long-range missile.
- The North also rejected condemnation by the United Nations Security Council, including its ally China, of the failed launch last Friday.
Japan's Yomiuri Shimbun newspaper said today that China has suspended the refugee repatriation deal because it was not consulted about the launch, seen by the US and its allies as a covert test of ballistic missile technology.The paper quoted two Chinese officials as saying the longstanding policy of swiftly returning North Koreans as economic migrants - despite the punishment they face back home - had been put on hold.
- "North Korea failed to disclose specific plans of the missile launch to the Chinese side," the paper quoted one unidentified official as saying.
- The suspension reflects Beijing's displeasure with its neighbour which "did not show the necessary attention to its friend China," the official said.
- Pyongyang insists its botched satellite launch was not a missile test and did not breach a February deal with Washington, under which it vowed to suspend uranium enrichment and nuclear and missile tests in return for food aid.
- But the US called off plans to start shipping 265,000 tons (240,000 tonnes) of food, saying the North could no longer be trusted.
- On Monday, a Security Council presidential statement "strongly condemned" the launch. It ordered a tightening of existing sanctions and warned of new action if the isolated state stages another nuclear or long-range missile test.
Pyongyang said Washington had imposed a "brigandish demand" on the council and that every country has the right to launch satellites for peaceful purposes.The North had planned its launch as a centerpiece of mass celebrations for the centenary of the birth of founding president Kim Il Sung, grandfather of current leader Kim Jong Eun.
At a major military parade Sunday featuring goose-stepping troops and weaponry, it wheeled out an apparently new long-range missile.
NKOREA HAS BUILT NEW NUCLEAR FACILITY
SEOUL, South Korea – North Korea's claim of a new, highly sophisticated uranium enrichment facility could be a ploy to win concessions in nuclear talks or an attempt to bolster leader Kim Jong Il's apparent heir.But whatever the reason for the revelation, which a seasoned American nuclear scientist called "stunning," it provides a new set of worries for the Obama administration, which is sending its special envoy on North Korea for talks with officials in South Korea, Japan and China this week.
The scientist, Siegfried Hecker(photo), said in a report posted Saturday that he was taken during a recent trip to the North's main Yongbyon atomic complex to a small industrial-scale uranium enrichment facility. It had 2,000 recently completed centrifuges, he said, and the North told him it was producing low-enriched uranium meant for a new reactor.- Hecker, a former director of the U.S. Los Alamos Nuclear Laboratory who is regularly given rare glimpses of the North's secretive nuclear program, said the program had been built in secret and with remarkable speed.
- Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff, said uranium enrichment activities would violate U.N. resolutions and agreements by North Korea over its nuclear program.
U.S. nuclear envoy Stephen Bosworth's trip to Asia for talks on North Korea comes as new satellite images show construction under way at Yongbyon. That, combined with reports from Hecker and another American expert who recently traveled to the atomic complex, appear to show that the North is keeping its pledge to build a nuclear power reactor.- North Korea vowed in March to build a light-water reactor using its own nuclear fuel. Hecker, and Jack Pritchard, a former U.S. envoy for negotiations with North Korea, have said that construction has begun.
- North Korea said last year it was in the final stage of enriching uranium, sparking worries that the country may add uranium-based weapons to its stockpile of bombs made from plutonium. Experts say the North has yielded enough weaponized plutonium for at least a half dozen atomic bombs.
Uranium can be enriched in relatively inconspicuous factories that are better able to evade spy satellite detection, according to U.S. and South Korean experts. Uranium-based bombs may also work without requiring test explosions like the two carried out by North Korea in 2006 and 2009 for plutonium-based weapons. AMID TENSION WITH THE SOUTH, NORTH KOREA TO ELECT NEW LEADER
North Korea has announced it will elect new party leaders at a rare meeting in September, in what analysts are saying could be a move to strengthen the hand of Kim Jong-il's potential successor.
Kim Jong-il, who reportedly suffered a stroke in 2008, is believed to have been grooming Kim Jong-un, his youngest son to succeed him as leader.
"The political bureau of North Korea's ruling Workers' Party [WPK] decides to convene a conference for electing its highest leading body reflecting the new requirements of the WPK," the country's official Korean Central News Agency said on Saturday.
Source: Reuters
Kim Jong-il, who reportedly suffered a stroke in 2008, is believed to have been grooming Kim Jong-un, his youngest son to succeed him as leader."The political bureau of North Korea's ruling Workers' Party [WPK] decides to convene a conference for electing its highest leading body reflecting the new requirements of the WPK," the country's official Korean Central News Agency said on Saturday.
- Little is known about Kim Jong-un, including his exact age, though he is believed to be in his mid-20s.
- However, South Korea's intelligence chief has been quoted as telling a closed-door session of a parliamentary committee this week that a campaign to boost Kim Jong-un's image has been going on behind the scenes due to concerns about his father's poor health.
- There are reports that Kim may be showing the first signs of alzheimer's disease.The problem is that his son is a young man and has no experience whatsoever and the military, which has gained more power in the last few years, may not be totally on board with this transition.
Tensions between Pyongyang and Seoul have been heightened since the sinking of a South Korean warship in late March and it also remains isolated from the international community which condemns its nuclear programme.
South Korea has accused the North of torpedoing the warship Cheonan and is seeking to have the UN security council penalise it.
The North has denied the allegation and warned any punishment would trigger war.
VISITORS GEOFLAGS SINCE AUGUST 26, 2009
